It's Simple: Do it or don't…

I’m into week six.. By this time, I’m not only feeling a difference, but I’m definitely seeing a difference. I kicked up my workouts and the scale is dropping once again. My new experiment in the kitchen this week were Paleo Pancakes… Almond Flour, eggs, Cinnamon, vanilla and I added raisins…It makes 4 pancakes, each containing about 18g of protein… I used a small amount of 100% pure maple syrup and they were amazing. I ate two each morning, and I froze the other two. I’m going to try to pop them in the toaster on a morning that I’m in a hurry. They actually taste pretty awesome, especially without the guilt.

My Paleo diet has become such a normal thing now, that I really don’t think about what day I’m on, or that I’m “deprived” of anything. It’s just a lifestyle now. When I go out to eat, I still scan the menu and make clean choices, but I’ve never said that I can’t eat at a certain place because they have nothing for me. It can be done.

The thing I’m noticing more and more is people are asking me how my diet is going because they see results. They hear me tell them how great I feel. It motivates them, and I have had a lot of people, especially when I started, say that they were going to do it too… I haven’t heard out of those people lately, so I’m assuming they fell off the bandwagon. Most people don’t like to report failure, only success. Others have said maybe they aren’t going to try this diet, which is fine, but they are going to clean up their food choices because they want to lose weight. Again, two weeks pass, and not a word. It’s a vicious cycle that we as trainers see continuously, and it has to be one of our biggest pet peeves… If you want to lose weight, and you’re serious about losing weight, then it is very simple… Either do it, or don’t.

When a client, friend, or even someone on Facebook mentions they are going to lose weight, I can immediately tell if they are going to succeed or fail. I know in that moment if this “diet” is going to last a week, or even a day. It’s not a gift, it’s just a matter of listening to them. I can sit for an hour with a client and listen to their “game plan” and hear how they are going to “get serious” and there are SO many times, I really want to reply saying “Not gonna happen.” If I don’t believe them, how do I expect they believe in themselves that they can do it. Hence this is why trainers can have clients for years that either “yo-yo” with their weight or they just never change at all.

Let’s get one thing straight first… I’m a trainer. I’m not a therapist and I’m sure as hell not a cheerleader. I can not personally drop the weight for you. The best way I can explain what I do as a trainer is that I’m your GPS for your fitness goals. You tell me your goals, and I set up the best route for you to take to get there. I can’t drive the car for you. I can’t be there with you 24/7 to tell you what to eat/not eat.

Fitness goals are 90% mental. Until you’re mentally ready to start a path to your fitness goals, you’re wasting time. Even with this Paleo Diet, I didn’t wake up one morning and say “I’m going to start this diet today.” It took me months to mentally prepare for it. When I go for something I want to go 100% at it. No one is making me do this diet, I’m doing it for me. And no one is putting a gun to my head telling me not to eat something off the diet. I CHOOSE not to eat it because it’s not in my plan. My “plan” is to succeed. It’s not always easy. It’s not always something I want to do at that moment, but I do it because I want to excel far more than I want to fail.

This past weekend Emerge trainers Nicole and Julie, and a few Emerge clients competed in a figure/bodybuilding competition, and they all did very well. Over the past 16 weeks, if you have been in the gym, you could see their bodies transforming. They were leaning out, they were showing more muscle definition. I heard a lot of “I want to look like that” from other clients. I’ve heard girls point out they want to be thin like me, or get as little as Angie, or be as strong and fit as Beth. That’s all fine and dandy, but guess what. If you want to look like that, you HAVE to “WORK YOUR ASS OFF FOR IT”. We don’t wake up every morning having the gift of looking like we do. We diet, we do cardio when we don’t want to, we eat things we don’t always want to. There are some mornings we have to get up extra early to get in a workout, or stay late after work to fit it in, but we do it because we’re mentally set to succeed. It’s our priority to reach our fitness goals.

I love clients who are mentally ready to lose weight. When they come in for their first session, you know they are serious and passionate about being there. It’s so exciting because they give 100% and they are so proud to tell you of their diet accomplishments. They want to work harder and push further. They are on a mission, and I make sure I’m not in their way because they will plow me over. To see someone so aggressive with something they want so bad is so contagious. Even us trainers get on board and it pushes us even harder for ourselves. We truly love helping people. But I won’t lie, I really love helping those who are ready to help themselves.

The next time you see a motivating picture on Pinterest, or you see someone with the body shape you’d like to have one day, think to yourself how badly do you want it. How much are you willing to work to reach your goals. Are you mentally prepared for good days and bad days, and does succeeding weigh out failure? Have you accepted that it isn’t going to be easy? The greatest risks lead to the greatest rewards. Anyone CAN do it, you just have to make sure your own self believes that you can.